Lyft buying Motivate

[Dewey]

Capital Bikeshare’s owner Motivate is reportedly being bought by Lyft.

[Henry]

@Dewey 178802 wrote:

Capital Bikeshare’s owner Motivate is reportedly being bought by Lyft.

Or is it Uber.

[Judd]

@Henry 178948 wrote:

Or is it Uber.

Starting a GoFundMe to buy Motivate…

[Dewey]

Lyft acquire Motivate.

[Judd]

Just a point of clarification that Motivate has the contract to operate Capital Bikeshare but doesn’t own Capital Bikeshare.

[Dewey]

Lyft fund massive expansion of New York’s Citi Bikeshare program, $100million to triple the number of bikes hopefully this will bring operating costs down for their other systems eg Motivate group buy discount on ebikes to expand DC’s fleet https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/576-18/mayor-de-blasio-dramatic-expansion-citi-bike#/0

[accordioneur]

Well, I hope they fix this …

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[Yule]

@Dewey 183268 wrote:

Mayor de Blasio Announces Dramatic Expansion Of Citi Bike
November 29, 2018

[…] doubling Citi Bike’s service area and tripling the number of bikes in the next five years […]

Can we get a push for a doubling of service area and tripling of bikes in the system, too? CaBi coverage area is decent but IMO leaves much to be desired if the goal is to be a comprehensive regional system, which it should be (why not?).

New York City had reached an agreement

Nice to be able to do that. Meanwhile, there are seven or so different jurisdictions with a hand in Capital Bikeshare, four major ones: Arlington, Alexandria, District of Columbia, and the federal government (i.e., stations on public land like the Mall) (?).

[Judd]

@Yule 183408 wrote:

Can we get a push for a doubling of service area and tripling of bikes in the system, too? CaBi coverage area is decent but IMO leaves much to be desired if the goal is to be a comprehensive regional system, which it should be (why not?).

Nice to be able to do that. Meanwhile, there are seven or so different jurisdictions with a hand in Capital Bikeshare, four major ones: Arlington, Alexandria, District of Columbia, and the federal government (i.e., stations on public land like the Mall) (?).

It would be a pretty drastic change in the structure of CaBi. CaBi is owned by multiple jurisdictions in the area and is operated as public transportation. The jurisdictions purchase the stations and pay into operating costs. Fees do not fully cover operating and equipment expenses.

Citi Bike is a public private partnership but the system is owned by a subsidiary company of Motivate and not NYC. Citibank paid some bucks for naming rights. Membership is also twice as much as CaBi at $165 a year, although that includes unlimited 45 minute trips instead of CaBi’s 30.

Under the current structure, Motivate/Lyft doesn’t have much incentive to outlay funds to expand CaBi.

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[Yule]

@Judd 183471 wrote:

CaBi is owned by multiple jurisdictions in the area and is operated as public transportation. The jurisdictions purchase the stations and pay into operating costs. […]

Under the current structure, Motivate/Lyft doesn’t have much incentive to outlay funds to expand CaBi.

I suppose there is good and bad to Capital Bikeshare being a government-subsidized public service.

Still, someone somewhere along the chain of command(s), government(s) in this case and not the private company Motivate, needs some vision to really commit to getting the system to be comprehensive, and usable beyond the two Metro corridors. A very large share of both the Arlington population and the land area are still unserved by Capital Bikeshare. Another big push is needed, like this NYC mayor announcement. But I am highly biased as a CaBi fan.

* * * * *

Note: Arlington has 6 stations to be (theoretically) installed soon (designated on the map with ’19,’ i.e., 2019), and almost twenty more designated (in green) as “potential future sites” in the Capital Bikeshare expansion Google Map layer. Even these new six incoming and the possible twenty would still be a bare-bones attempt at reasonably comprehensive county coverage.

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[lordofthemark]

Citibike is privately paid for because Citibank pays a considerable amount – the name, the colors, the ads all over, are all about Citibank branding. For CaBi in addition to requiring coordination among all the participating jurisdictions, you would have to deal with limits on advertizing on National Park Service property. Even if that were overcome, not sure you could find a sponsor willing to pay the total system cost – note that with lower population density than NYC, its inherently going to require more subsidy to have a workable system here.

As for expanding the system, that is up to each jurisdiction. I know in Alexandria the City funds it, and we at BPAC have worked with the City on locations, and pushed to speed the process up. I guess the bike advocates in Arlington do the same. I look forward to more CaBi expansion, but I would dispute that in Arlington its only useable in the metro corridors. Its quite useable in much of South Arlington, including Shirlington and surrounding areas. Looking at the proposed expansion map, the main area without CaBi stations will be in the low density corner of North Arlington. Its inherently difficult for bike share to serve an area like that, and AFAICT there are no plans in NYC for CitiBike to serve areas with similar low densities (a few parts of Queens and Staten Island I guess)

[chris_s]

@Yule 183477 wrote:

Note: Arlington has 6 stations to be (theoretically) installed soon (designated on the map with ’19,’ i.e., 2019), and almost twenty more designated (in green) as “potential future sites” in the Capital Bikeshare expansion Google Map layer. Even these new six incoming and the possible twenty would still be a bare-bones attempt at reasonably comprehensive county coverage.
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Don’t expect a lot of CaBi expansion in Arlington anytime soon. CaBi’s capital budget was obliterated in the most recent Capital Improvement Plan. They’ve basically just got enough to replace stations and bikes as they reach end of life.

[Judd]

@chris_s 183592 wrote:

Don’t expect a lot of CaBi expansion in Arlington anytime soon. CaBi’s capital budget was obliterated in the most recent Capital Improvement Plan. They’ve basically just got enough to replace stations and bikes as they reach end of life.

Thanks, dedicated metro funding. Womp womp.

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[Rod Smith]

Who owned CaBi before Lyft bought it? I thought it was the jurisdictions in which it operates. If so, why would ArlCo need to be funding it into the future?

[chris_s]

@Rod Smith 183648 wrote:

Who owned CaBi before Lyft bought it? I thought it was the jurisdictions in which it operates. If so, why would ArlCo need to be funding it into the future?

The jurisdictions own CaBi including all of the bikes and all of the stations.

CaBi is operated, under contract, by a company called Motivate (formerly called Alta bikeshare).

Motivate was bought by Lyft.

So now the jurisdictions send their contract money to a company controlled by Lyft, rather than to a company that isn’t controlled by Lyft.

[Author]

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